Incandescent Lamp Radiant Heater

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, thought i would share my newest design of lamp heater.
It works very well.
Last night it dropped to 32F outside and it maintained 73F in the roughly 350 sq. ft. room it is in.
It uses two 100 watt incandescent bulbs, one on each end of aluminum roof flashing tube, which is 10" long.
It has six radiator fins made of same material, each one is 6" wide, with about 1" bend at 90 degrees with slots, so each steel pipe clamp can secure them in thermal relation to the main tube.
The bulbs at each end are in full 360 degree contact at each end.
It draws 175 watts on killiwatt meter, even when just starting out cold, not sure why, as it should be drawing 200 watts.
Anyway, it works really well and i plan to expand it, by attaching another identical module beside it.
Also, there is a large hole on bottom of wood structure, to encourage convection.
Your comments welcome.
peace love light

[thx1138]

Can we get more construction details/drawings? I could use one of these in a 96SqFt cabin I have on some rural property but I would probably need to downsize it a bit.

[SkyWatcher]

Hi thx1138, it is 10" aluminum roof flashing from hardware store.
i wrapped an almost double layer around the 2 bulbs and the aluminum tube snugs up against ceramic lamp holders at each end.
Each radiator fin has a 1" 90 degree bend with 3 slots spaced apart at bend, to allow the steel hose clamps to slide through flush and around the main tube.
No glue or tape of any kind is used, as previous testing showed nasty fumes radiated from doing that.
The steel hose clamps hold all the aluminum fins and tube together around the main tube and bulbs.
Do not tighten the hose clamps too tight, so as to allow expansion of metals, hand tightening lightly is all that is needed.
Also, i blew a couple bulbs, i assume because of having both bulbs contained within same tube, overheated them.
Solution to the overheating, drilled four 1/2" holes along side of tube, towards center away from bulbs, no bulbs have blown so far with the cooling holes.
Also, one end of wood structure with a ceramic lamp holder, is made to be removable, for replacing bulbs and maintenance.
If that is not a clear enough explanation, let me know, i will take the one side off and show it in more detail.
peace love light

[boguslaw]

Next step , next step please !!! How is that powered ?

[thx1138]

Hi thx1138, it is 10" aluminum roof flashing from hardware store.
i wrapped an almost double layer around the 2 bulbs and the aluminum tube snugs up against ceramic lamp holders at each end.
Each radiator fin has a 1" 90 degree bend with 3 slots spaced apart at bend, to allow the steel hose clamps to slide through flush and around the main tube.
No glue or tape of any kind is used, as previous testing showed nasty fumes radiated from doing that.
The steel hose clamps hold all the aluminum fins and tube together around the main tube and bulbs.
Do not tighten the hose clamps too tight, so as to allow expansion of metals, hand tightening lightly is all that is needed.
Also, i blew a couple bulbs, i assume because of having both bulbs contained within same tube, overheated them.
Solution to the overheating, drilled four 1/2" holes along side of tube, towards center away from bulbs, no bulbs have blown so far with the cooling holes.
Also, one end of wood structure with a ceramic lamp holder, is made to be removable, for replacing bulbs and maintenance.
If that is not a clear enough explanation, let me know, i will take the one side off and show it in more detail.
peace love light

Got it. I noticed the removable end. Many thanks.

[SkyWatcher]

Hi thx1138, your welcome, if you have any more questions let me know.
Hi boguslaw, the bulbs are in parallel and powered from AC wall power.
Though it only draws 175 watts with killiwatt meter, they are rough service 100 watt bulbs.
Maybe one of the bulbs is more damaged somehow than the other, due to the overheat condition the design had before i drilled the cooling holes.
That might explain the decrease in wattage.
peace love light

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, i tried to replicate my last heater and am not having much luck with using the two 100 watt incandescent bulbs.
It is possible the previous rough service bulbs are of higher quality, to handle the high heat build up, as the dollar store rough service 100 watt bulbs do not last long.
So, to remove the need for any specialized bulbs, i designed a new heater.
This design uses the same size radiator fins, 6 of them, riveted vertically to the under side of the visible aluminum plate.
It uses three 100 watt rough service bulbs from dollar store, with ceramic bulb holders.
Some of the inner aluminum fins are in direct contact with all 3 bulbs, they are just pushed into the box and the fins bend a little putting pressure on the bulbs.
The inside of the wooden box is coated with high temp. fireplace cement mortar.
There is a 12 volt computer chassis fan on the bottom blowing cooler air into the box and out the side exhaust hole.
An aluminum exhaust shroud is visible to limit light from escaping from box and is painted with high temp. paint on the inner sides.
This helps to further reduce light reflecting outside of the box and also helps to absorb more infrared frequencies before leaving exhaust port.
The inner aluminum fins help with heat transfer to exhaust air.
The unit uses 267 watts and is heating this space very well.
peace love light

[sprocket]

I tried a small-scale heater using the lamps shown, and found that after only an hour, one had blown. On closer inspection it was obvious that the filament was still intact, so after a little searching, found that manufacturers are required to include a fuse-able connection between the filament and the external electrical connection. After pulling off both of the ceramic connectors, sure enough, the filament was fine. Seems either that fuse blows, or thermal-stress breaks the electrical connection.

I have also bought proper 300W IR heater elements for a proper replication of that patent in the other thread, along with perforated aluminium sheet, almost identical to that shown in the patent. It took me well over an hour to drill out 300+ holes in aluminium sheet for the small version, which I concluded was way too much work! All that's left to order is the oven wire.

[SkyWatcher]

Hi sprocket, thanks for sharing, would like to see some pics and data when your done.
This latest design i'm showing works well, i think the smaller enclosure is able to heat the air within to a higher degree than some previous designs i've built and the inner fins help that also.
No regular bulbs blowing in this design.
I seem to recall in the patent your replicating, he mentioned using some kind of coating inside, though that may have just been flat black high temp. paint to absorb more infrared energy.
Look forward to your results.
peace love light

[sprocket]

Hi. Yes, I also have 'stove-paint' spray, black, good up to 650C, so got that covered too. One thing I forgot to mention was the fan. I ordered one that stated it had a 78CFM airflow, but which turned out to only be capable of only 45CFM - patent had 70CFM of airflow, so that's something else I need to get.

[SkyWatcher]

Hi folks, Hi sprocket, been a good day to test the heater, it is now 17 F. outside and it is 71 F. in this space.
Though i have both heaters on at the moment, the new one with small fan and the older purely radiator design.
I need to add some of those Y bulb adapters, so i can have option to add more bulbs using the 3 ceramic bulb holders.
Need at least 400 watts in the newer design, it is only using 245 watts at the moment.
peace love light

[Michelinho]

3000 Watts heater.

Hi SkyWatcher,

I planned a space heater 2 years ago based on the induction plate driving 3,000W of halogen bulbs like JLN does here. Worked very well on the bench but it's always on or always off. I was driving the 3000 Watts of bulbs with an 1800 Watts induction plate and you can use the intensity settings to produce more or less heat. Wear sunglasses.

Take care,

Michel

[mikrovolt]

starting with a thermal designed living space.
Some of the insulation ideas for home attics done with foam look interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F_IkZJ8NOY

In a logical geometry to improve the standard convection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr8WbV8F_5g
finding an optimum point between radiant and convection and still have an
aesthetic living space by storing heat using conduction and thermal mass.(earthship)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...kF2seZECA#t=74

I like the idea of radiant heat. Using an optimum infra-red
frequency and source. localizing heat by reflection such as positioning mylar space blanket
or survival blanket to optimize heat to one area such as a parabolic array to concentrate
the radiant down. Video the orange seen by flir imaging the orange used and reused.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqFRc-7wu8M

[SkyWatcher]

Dual Level Maze Enhanced Heater

Hi folks, I have made some modifications to the latest heater.
I painted all the inner aluminum fins with 2000 degree flat black paint.
This is giving a noticeable difference in heating.
I liken it to the sun shining in a window and it being the difference between a black colored object or white being hit with the rays.
The black paint absorbs and transforms more of the frequencies, whereas, just plain aluminum does not.
So, i came up with a new heater design, that will incorporate all the things i have tested, that seem to work well.
A) The direct contact with bulb, of aluminum heat absorbing material.
B) The high temp. flat black paint to absorb light frequencies from bulb.
C) A maze style interior, with two levels, to allow the incoming air to absorb as much heat as possible before being pushed out of heater, by fan at inlet port.

Here is a crude drawing of the idea.



Thoughts welcome.
peace love light